alexander: another example is president johnson and efferent dirksen on civil rights. that would not have happened if the government hadn't been divided and it wouldn't have been as easily accepted by the american people if it had not been divided. if this democratic president and mixture of republicans and democrats in congress say to the american people, we got a real fiscal cliff for you. all the programs that you depend on to pay your medical bills aren't going to have enough money to pay them, and we're going to have to make some changes to deal with that, people won't accept that, especially if it comes from both of us. and as far as who's supposed to propose it, well, senator corker and i proposed it. but we're not president. and we're not president. and i don't know what the governor of virginia's 1350er7bs experience was, but if i waited, we'd still be driving on dirt roads. the legislate,all 535 of us will say, no, mr. president, we couldn't possibly do it that way. let's do it ail bit different and we'll come to a result. that's the way our system works. we